Beloved dog killed in Christmas Day backyard baiting

KATY Fraser's heart shattered as she realised her beloved dog had been baited and was dying in her arms on Christmas Day.

Ms Fraser had been preparing to leave her Palmwoods home for a Christmas lunch when she let her two beloved bulldogs, Roxy and Izzy, out into her backyard to go to the toilet.

But after her "old girl" failed to return she knew something was wrong.

"She (Roxy) is normally really quick so I thought she might have gotten through a gate," she said.

But Roxy was soon found under some stairs.

"Her body had swollen, it was rock hard … and her mouth, jaw, all her lips and her tongue were all blue and she was frothing so badly at the mouth.

"I tried to get her breathing and the vet said she had been baited and to 'get her to us now', but it was too late, she passed away in not even a minute."

The owner of Rustic Designs adopted 11-year-old Roxy and said she was struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss after a tough year.

"It's a hard adjustment because we lost my mum in November, she was fighting brain cancer and we were nursing her through her sickness for 16 months and last Christmas her beautiful dog died on Christmas Day too, so it's been hard," she said.

"I hope who did this, realises that they aren't dogs they are our family.

"They need to come past and look at how it effects people, especially at the time of finding her and trying to get air into her."

Tanawha Animal Emergency Service director Dr Matt Rosen said dog baiting was surprisingly rare and was often mistaken for other medical emergencies like toad encounters and twisted stomachs.

"A lot of people think there is malicious intent and I'm not saying that there's not but it is hard to prove and it's not as common as people believe," he said.

"Rat bait's method of action is it stops animals from clotting, so they bleed out but it's not something that happens quickly, it's a misconception that they will show signs straight away."

But Ms Fraser said after talking to the vet over the phone she believed Roxy was baited by fast acting rat poison, The Big Cheese.

"It's not like normal rat poison," Ms Fraser said.

She said it worked a lot faster than other rat poison and could have been in her yard for a few days.

The mother of two said Roxy "lived a good life".

"She's a beautiful girl," she said.

"She was a chatter box, she would talk to us and she loved those big balls.

"She got three new balls for Christmas but now they are just sitting on the back deck."

Ms Fraser said while she and her family planned to "adopt a beautiful dog" in the future, the "horrible day" had ruined Christmas.

"It was a very sad day and we all said next year we don't think we will have Christmas."